Youth Activists Call for Embrace of Global Nuclear Ban Treaty Ahead of Hiroshima Summit

Youth-led peace activists on Thursday wrapped up a summit in Hiroshima by urging Group of Seven leaders slated to meet next month in the Japanese city—where more than 100,000 people died in a 1945 U.S. atomic bombing—to sign a landmark treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Organized by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and hosted by the Center for Peace at Hiroshima University, the 50 youth delegates from G7 nations met "in the city that symbolizes the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons" to remind the countries' leaders that "possession or use of nuclear weapons is illegitimate as recognized by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)."

While 68 nations are parties to the TPNW, none of the G7 countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—or, more importantly, any of the world's nine nuclear powers, support the treaty. Three nuclear-armed nations—the U.S., U.K., and France—are also G7 members.

"Over the past week, we have had the unique opportunity to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and meet the hibakusha, the courageous survivors of nuclear weapons. Their stories have moved us deeply, further strengthening our resolve to create a world free from the horrors of nuclear warfare," the activists said in a statement.

"We call on the world to listen to the hibakusha... and recognize the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament," the activists' statement continued. "We urgently demand action on nuclear weapons to honor the lived experiences of the hibakusha and other communities affected by nuclear weapons, and to secure a safer world free from weapons of mass destruction for generations to come."

"Given the conflicts and crises we face today, we believe that the time for action against nuclear weapons is now," the youths stressed. "As young people, we champion the TPNW as the most effective path to eliminating nuclear weapons."

The Hiroshima G7 Youth Summit follows a call by United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu at last month's ICAN Act On It Forum in Oslo, Norway for urgent global action to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Citing "an increase in dangerous nuclear rhetoric" amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Nakamitsu warned that the risk of thermonuclear armageddon is "at the highest level since the depth of the Cold War" and that disarmament efforts "are needed now more than ever."